Hailing from Exeter, UK : Bound By Exile are one of the fastest growing names arising out of the underground for bringing “pure brutality on a whole new level”. Already sharing stages with the likes of the ever notorious Martyr Defiled, Postmortem Promises and Dyscarnate this Death Metal group’s making impressive headway in the business of breakdowns and chaos. Now pushing the 7500+ Facebook fan-mark these guys have enjoyed the incredible response that they’ve received following their 2012 EP release Defilement and are already looking to perform at Bloodstock Festival this summer as well as more exciting shows to come. I’d managed to get an exclusive interview with vocalist Luke McCarthy, where he talks about the production of Defilement, what’s in store for the rest of 2013, their influences, goals & aims, their latest single Monarchy Of Dust, their genre transition and even his favourite story from tour.

First out of my own curiosity I asked him just how he’d got involved with Bound By Exile?

“Bound By Exile was formed before I’d joined. Our current drummer (Alex Frampton, our previous bassist) and I were good friends before I’d joined. He was actually in the band at the time, he’d always talk to me about BBE‘s upcoming shows, so I became familiar with the band and the music. One day he called me and said:”

“Dude, we’re looking for another vocalist to do lows, I think you should tryout.”

“I jumped straight on the opportunity and landed being a new member!”

From here I questioned how long they’d spent gigging until producing the Defilement EP?

“I joined in November 2011, so we were gigging tons from then till late march, early April, which was when we recorded Defilement. But the guys had been gigging years before that.”

I was itching to know about the production of the EP, whether it ran smoothly and if they were happy with their insane release? And particularly where they’d got their impressive artwork done?

“The production was absolutely fine. I was insanely happy with how it turned out! Had one of my all time favourite vocalists (Jason Evans Of Ingested) feature on a track, I couldn’t have been anymore stoked.”

“We went to Consume The Flesh Media! My good friend Alexander Eastman, be sure to go to him, he’s amazing!”

In regards to touring and the live shows, I was curious as to whether they were looking to expand globally or whether they were driven to build their underground UK fanbase?

“Obviously, every band would love global recognition, it would be insane to tour the world and make this our life.”

“However for us, it’s genuinely not about becoming the biggest band in existence, just about making music WE love to make.”

“If it gets us global recognition then that’s a plus, but there is no way in hell were gonna’ sell out what we do for it, FUCK THAT.”

“It doesn’t matter to us man. We couldn’t care whether you live in the UK or some desolate town out in the middle of nowhere. If you like what we do, then thank you so much. It honestly means the world to a band like ourselves. If you don’t dig what we do, then that’s completely fine, it doesn’t faze us in the slightest. “

“We appreciate every single one of our supporters and friends, location makes no difference to us.”

I applaud this guys modesty. In respective of their music they are in fact driven to thrive among Death Metal fanatics and work to please. But did they have any aims they wanted to achieve following the Defilement release?

“We just wanted some people to like what we worked hard to create, we got a fucking amazing response from people when it dropped. It was an insane feeling! We didn’t expect that much of an awesome response.”

What about in the long-term, are there any goals they want to reach in the music industry?

“Just to better ourselves at what we do, and make this become our life. There’s nothing more we’ve ever wanted in our lives!”

What I had to know now was what they have planned for 2013, and what are they most looking forward to?

“This year is going to be an unreal year for us! We said previously we have an AWESOME tour in the works, we can’t give any details yet but it’s gonna be fucking insane!”

“We’re also playing this years BLOODSTOCK FESTIVAL. That to me is a dream, I still can’t grasp the fact it’s happening. I nearly passed out when we were told dude. Surreal feeling!”

Already having dreams come alive with arguably the heaviest music festival in Britain Bloodstock lined up, where do they see things going from here?

“I see us continuing what we’re doing. Making music we love, and if people also love it, then it’s a positive cycle. If not, we will continue to do so regardless.”

Another question on the tip of my tongue was what bands Luke and the group would cite as their biggest influences?

Deathcore bands in the UK has notably been relatively scarce in comparison to our transatlantic cousins, I wondered in his opinion where he believed the future of Deathcore lay: whether it’d stay underground or grow into something more?

“As a band we’ve decided to pursue our new Death Metal sound, purely because we enjoy making the music a lot more, but Deathcore seems to be having some AMAZING bands jump into the scene! I think it will continue and more bands will arise from it, I don’t think it will become as big as people want it to be, but I prefer it that way.”

A bit more lightly I asked if he has a personal favourite story from tour to tell?

“My favourite tour story? We’ve had a ton, but the one that has always stuck with me is when we were on the Defilement tour with our bros in SHOT DOWN STAY DOWN and FROZEN AFFLICTION! We played an awesome show in Leeds at the well, then after the venue turned into a club, so we all partied until early hours of the morning. Everyone but myself got absolutely smashed and started wondering round Leeds. Me and Ryan (FA‘s bassist) went to KFC, and I got locked in the fucking toilets for like an hour…so we walked back to the venue and everyone was just hanging and having an awesome night.”

“Just one of them moments when you realise that being in a band is rad as fuck!”

After 3 days ago releasing Monarchy Of Dust on YouTube – a song that steps away from their Deathcore roots and instead takes to the realms of Death Metal – they’ve been met with mixed but overall a very positive reception. What spurred them to make their genre transition?

“We’ve always been fans of Death Metal! In fact, all of our early inspirations were mainly Death Metal, so I guess we just wanted to go back to our origins, to the music that made us want to do what we do.”

For all those who welcomed this change, I asked whether this meant a new EP or possibly an album soon to follow?

“Without giving away too much info, were currently in the writing process of some new material. It will heavily reflect our new Death Metal Approach, so be sure to keep a watch out for that!”

Does he believe however that the direction they’ve chosen and the music they’re recording is the best that they’ve ever wrote?

“I believe that the music we’re making is a step up for us. An approach we’ve been pursuing for a while. That’s for the supporters and friends to decide whether or not it’s our best.”

My last question to him was whether there are any bands he’d recommend to the fans: